


nothing ever happens if you always play it safe

by android



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-02
Updated: 2013-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 09:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/951526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/android/pseuds/android
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren Jaeger is the school's resident troublemaker. He's one of the biggest idiots Levi has ever had the misfortune of having in his classroom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	nothing ever happens if you always play it safe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ROSEWAR](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ROSEWAR/gifts).



> for lulu! no smut this time, sorry. just a short little au drabble.
> 
> 9-2-13: revised the ending with something i liked better, oops.

The first few times, it was accidental. Now? Now Levi knows it's on purpose. Eren Jaeger is the school's resident troublemaker. Not the kind you'd find playing an embarrassing game of keep away in the locker room with the weakest kid in gym class, or the kind who waits in the lunchroom courtyard to shake down an innocent passerby for lunch money. No-- Eren Jaeger can be more accurately described as the high school's lone vigilante; the teenager who nails the stronger kid in the face with a dodge ball and returns stolen clothing; he's the headstrong moron who threatens the "animals" who prey on their juniors who'd just like to get a breath of fresh air during their thirty minutes of recess. He's one of the biggest idiots Levi has ever had the misfortune of having in his classroom.

It's ten minutes after the school day is over, yet here Levi stands leaning cross-legged against the front of his desk, staring down the disheveled Eren Jaeger before him. His tan skin is bruised around his eye, an ugly blend of purple, green and blue. Eren's tie is loose, his shirt is wrinkled and stained with dirt and Levi thinks his lip might have been bleeding at some point before he got here.

"Here for detention again, Eren?" 

"Yes, sir." Eren looks down at his desk and Levi is perplexed by the sudden distasteful look on his face before leaning forward to see what it is that Eren is staring at and... oh. It's a drawing-- a drawing of a dick, and in pen too. He scoffs. Why is he not surprised? It doesn't take Levi longer than a few seconds to settle on Connie as the perpetrator. Only Connie could fail that badly at drawing a dick. He'll make him scrub every last one of the desks tomorrow. The floor too, maybe.

"What did you do to wind up looking like that this time? Whoever sent you here was too asinine to give me a slip beforehand." Eren's head jerks up and Levi meets his eyes, looking at him expectantly. It's a lie. The yellow slip detailing exactly what shit Eren stirred up during last block is in the top drawer of his desk, but if Levi has to stay here for an extra half an hour, he's going to get some entertainment out of it. It's already begun to work, because Eren is fidgeting in his seat, breaking eye contact with Levi to look out the open window.

"That's... uh..." In math class, Eren isn't the perfect student but he makes an effort, even if it's clear that he's going to be a slow learner with the trigonometric functions they've moved onto. He's got a leg up on Sasha and Connie, if that counts for anything at all. Eren tries hard to understand sine, cosine and tangent, tries with such determination that he, in midst of some intense thinking, once broke his pencil in half while he had it in his mouth. He had sputtered and gagged, desperate to get the taste of lead out of his mouth, Levi finally giving in and sending him out into the hall to get a drink from the water fountain. In between the giggles of the rest of his classroom and the slam of the heavy wooden door, Levi had begrudgingly started to accept that there was something different about Eren Jaeger. Something about this dimwitted teenager that grabs at the depths of him more than anyone else has and all without really trying, even during his fits of stupidity. He brings himself back from out of his thoughts when he sees Eren open his mouth to speak. "...Jean was bugging Armin, saying all this stupid sh--stuff, so I..." He grimaces, but Eren doesn't need to say anything more. 

Levi sighs through his nose and pushes off the desk to approach Eren, setting his hand down in front of him with more force than necessary. It makes the younger boy jump but Levi remains unaffected, having successfully taken his attention away from the window. Levi knows Armin Arlert. He knows the kid hates being helped out of situations, and had Jean really gotten on his nerves, Armin would have dealt with it himself. It isn't too far-fetched to think Eren might have picked a fight with Jean for the hell of it, but Levi knows that if there was a reason, any reason at all, it was so that Eren could stay behind-- alone-- with Levi.

"You keep doing this, you know you're going to end up with out-of-school suspension. Right?" Levi's voice lacks any trace of empathy, same as his eyes. Eren blanches at the realization of what trouble he is getting himself into and goes rigid at that, back straight. Both he and Levi are aware of the multiple times he's gotten in-school suspension. Levi doesn't know where this kid's head it is, but when he makes choices like these it definitely isn't here. Eren has looked away from Levi again, bright green eyes focused on his lap where his hands are curled into fists. With a glower, Levi closes his eyes and puts his weight on Eren's small desk, taking his turn to stare out the window. "If you want to come and see me, just do it. Having to watch you like this is annoying." 

"That's not why--!" Eren jolts, halfway to standing before he freezes and slowly settles back down in his chair. Good thing, because it hits Levi that had he continued, Eren would have taken the desk with him, and probably Levi too.

"Eren. You've been in my class the entire semester. Do you think I'm stupid?" Eren's face flushes and he looks away. To Levi's dismay, he finds the expression Eren is making much more appealing than he should, bruises and cut lip aside. The latter just seems to make his lips a darker and attractive red. "I already knew about you before they stuck me with the shitty job of monitoring brats like you during after-school detention. You were in here maybe once or twice every other week. Now you try to get in here as much as you can without getting your ass beat by the school rules." 

Levi doesn't need the frustrated groan that Eren tries to hush under his breath to prove that he's right. He already knew he was, but this is sort of satisfying, except for how Eren won't look at him in the eyes. He's got a remedy for this, a pretty effective one, he's sure of it. Reaching out with a slender hand, Levi grasps the knot of Eren's tie and runs his fingers down the length of the smooth cloth, pulling Eren in his direction, closer to him, along with it. He definitely has his attention now.

The warm breeze that blows through the room tousles their hair, and the smell of late spring that rolls in with it only aids the mood Levi has somehow managed to set in such a short amount of time. They stare at each other for a good long moment, Eren's boyish features made more innocent by the honest blush that colors his entire face and neck. Were Levi to move just a few inches, he'd practically be on top of him. It'd be a bad time for a superintendent to pass by here. His voice is low, hushed, even a little gravely when he speaks, eyes locked with Eren's.

"If you want to come see me, just come see me. You get it?" Eren barely manages a nod and Levi carefully scans his face before backing away. He swears Eren had tried to lean in at the last moment there. "Then, I'm leaving."

"Huh!? It's barely been twenty minutes--" 

"I'm leaving. If you can't take care of yourself for ten minutes, you might as well send yourself back a few years and tell me how nice it feels to be in the fifth grade again." He turns his back to Eren and hears him squawk a small noise in disbelief, the sound of a head hitting a desk following shortly after. Levi is thankful he's already turned his back to Eren as he makes his way out of the door, leaving it cracked open behind him. There's a smirk on his face, small, but still there. 

But leaving can't that simple. He pauses in his stride halfway down the dim hallway when he hears the creak of a door and then a loud bang as it bashes against the wall by someone obviously all too impatient and hurried to open it.

"S-Sir! I'll come see you tomorrow!"

Levi waits before turning on his heel to face Eren, who's looking at him with a painfully readable expression, eager and nervous and failing to hide either of the two. " _Eren._ " Levi's own expression has hardened back into its usual severeness and Eren reacts to it immediately. The boy in the doorway stands at attention like he's ready to receive some sort of order and for the briefest of movements, a vague sense of familiarity washes over Levi.

"Yes," Eren barks at him, wide-eyed, and Levi just frowns.

"Get back in the classroom."

Eren's mouth is slightly agape and Levi can almost hear the gears turning in his head from here. He isn't sure if he's made a mistake by neither turning down or acknowledging Eren, positive that he has simply rationalized Levi's reaction to _"not a no."_ He did tell Eren to come, though, so it isn't all that surprising. Whatever the case, Eren swiftly bows and ducks back into the room, door shutting behind him just as loudly as he had opened it. Nothing bad has ever occurred between a student-teacher relationship, right? Levi guesses this is a thing he'll have to find out for himself-- there's no helping it anymore, because there's definitely something different about Eren Jaeger.


End file.
